As an Annual Member, the Fort Worth B-cycle program will track how many trips you take, miles ridden, calories burned, carbon offset and estimate how much gas you save! With over thirty bike-sharing stations on the ground and a fleet of 300 Trek bikes, you can ride to Downtown, Trinity Park, the Near Southside, TCU, UNTHSC, the Cultural District or the Hospital District in just minutes.

All members will be required to register with a credit card. Membership starts when you check out a bike for the first time. Fort Worth B-cycle open year-round, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Annual members are issued a B-card; until it arrives you can check out bikes using the same credit card you used to register. Annual membership does not include Usage Fees, which start accruing after 60 minutes of each ride. Members will be required to accept B-CYCLE WEBSITE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE.

The last of 28 bike share docking stations are being installed this week in preparation for our April 22nd launch. The stations are located in Downtown, the Near Southside, Cultural District, and one on TCU’s campus.

Another 2-5 stations will be added this Summer.

The 28 sites are:

ITC North

ITC South

Convention Center

Omni Hotel Fort Worth

Sundance Square North

Sundance Square South

City Place

Central Library

Belknap & Taylor

City Hall

5th & Penn

W. 7th St. & Stayton

2597 W. 7th St.

UNT Health Science Center

Gendy & Lansford

Trinity Park

T&P North

T&P South

S. Main & Daggett

Fort Worth Bike Sharing office

Art Museums

Magnolia & Lipscomb

Magnolia & Henderson

Magnolia & Hurley

Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth

Park Place & Enderly

TCU

The T offices

The Early Bird special on annual memberships for Fort Worth B-Cycle will expire at midnight on April 22. Sign up using the promo code “earlybird” to receive a $10 discount on annual memberships.

North Texas’ first bike sharing system launches on Earth Day, April 22, 2013. Three hundred volunteers have signed up to ride one of our red B-Cycle bikes from Burnett Park to a designated docking station.

Mayor Betsy Price will mark the occasion by ringing a ceremonial bike bell. From then on, the system will be available to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Media Parking: Across 7th street from Burnett Park, in front of the Bank of America building

Bike sharing is a new, environmentally friendly mode of transportation based on shared use of public bicycles. Run by the nonprofit organization Fort Worth Bike Sharing, the system will feature 300 specially designed Trek bicycles available for checkout from 28 docking stations.

The program began within the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T). The T received a $1 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration in July 2012 to purchase the equipment for the bike share stations.

Fort Worth Bike Sharing is actively seeking sponsors and selling bike and station advertising. For more information, email tim@fortworthbikesharing.org.

QUOTES

Mike Brennan, Fort Worth Bike Sharing Board Chair: “Just installing the stations has generated incredible excitement for Fort Worth Bike Sharing. We already have over 100 annual members signed up before the system launches next Monday, when 300 volunteers will ride bikes to the stations from Burnett Park. We’ve actually had to waitlist some volunteers, there was so much interest in being part of that launch ride.”

Dick Ruddell, Fort Worth Transportation Authority President: “I want to thank our city, the support of the Fort Worth bicycling community, Fort Worth Bike Sharing’s founding partners, and the Federal Transit Administration for making it possible to convert an idea in The T’s long-range strategic plan into a program with 300 bicycles and 28 stations ready to roll out this Earth Day. This program will no doubt enhance even further the great quality of life in Fort Worth.”

A regularly-priced annual membership costs $80. The rate for students, seniors and military is $65. The pre-launch promotion reduces these prices to $70 and $55.

Memberships are also available in 24-hour, 7-day and 30-day increments. One-day memberships can also be purchased after launch at each of our 28 bike share stations.

Membership starts when you checkout a bike for the first time. Annual members receive “B-cards,” which enable them to more quickly checkout bikes from the bike share station.

Membership includes unlimited rides of 30 minutes or less during the time period. See our Rates page for more information.

B-CONNECTED

Madison, Wis.-based B-cycle, one of the nation’s leading providers of bike sharing systems, announces its “B-connected” annual membership initiative between 15 of its B-cycle systems. Starting today, annual members traveling to specified B-cycle systems across the U.S. can use their annual membership to check out bikes in any of the participating cities just as they do in their home city.

Annual members of Fort Worth B-Cycle will be able to utilized bike share systems in San Antonio, Houston, Denver, and Nashville, among other cities. Click HERE for a full list of participating B-Cycle cities.

THE BIG SEND OFF

North Texas’ first bike sharing system launches on Earth Day, April 22, 2013. The Monday morning event will feature up to 300 volunteer bike riders leaving Burnett Park at the ding of a bike bell to distribute the bikes among 28 bike share stations.

Mayor Betsy Price, Councilmember Joel Burns and The T President Dick Ruddell will be among the speakers and riders. Click HERE for more information.

Bike sharing is a new, environmentally friendly mode of transportation based on shared use of public bicycles. Run by the nonprofit organization Fort Worth Bike Sharing, the system will feature 300 specially designed Trek bicycles available for checkout from 28 docking stations located throughout Downtown, Near Southside and Cultural District. Additional stations are scheduled to be added in Summer 2013.

Volunteers interested in participating in the launch event can sign up by emailing info@fortworthbikesharing.org. Fort Worth Bike Sharing is actively seeking sponsors and selling bike and station advertising.

QUOTES:

Kristen Camareno, Fort Worth Bike Sharing Executive Director: “Our most dedicated supporters are already signing up online, and now they have something extra to be excited about with the announcement of the B-connected program!”

Bob Burns, B-Cycle, LLC President: “B-cycle is excited to launch this one-of-a-kind program in participating B-cycle cities. B-connected provides unprecedented access to 15 B-cycle systems across the U.S., empowering annual members to experience visiting cities by bike versus by car. There’s no better way to explore a city than on a B-cycle.”

Fort Worth will celebrate Earth Day in style with the launch of the Fort Worth B-Cycle, the first bike sharing system in North Texas. Bike sharing is a new, environmentally friendly mode of transportation based on shared use of public bicycles.

Run by the nonprofit organization Fort Worth Bike Sharing, the system will feature 300 specially designed Trek bicycles available for checkout from 30 docking stations located throughout Downtown, Near Southside and Cultural District.

The launch event will feature a “send off” of up to 300 volunteers riding the bike sharing bicycles from Burnett Park to each docking station. Mayor Betsy Price and Councilman Joel Burns will be among the speakers and riders.

Volunteers interested in participating in the launch event can sign up by emailing info@fortworthbikesharing.org. Fort Worth Bike Sharing is actively seeking sponsors and selling bike and station advertising.

The program began within the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T). The T received a $1 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration in July 2012 to purchase the equipment for 30 bike share stations.

The Madison, Wis.-based B-Cycle was chosen as the equipment vendor. B-Cycle provides the equipment and software for bike share systems in San Antonio, Houston, and Denver, among others. B-Cycle is a joint venture between Trek and Humana.

QUOTES:

Kristen Camareno, Fort Worth Bike Sharing Executive Director: “It’s great to see two years of hard work finally coming to fruition. Fort Worth truly has something new to be excited about, and we look forward to kicking things off in a big way on Earth Day.”

Mike Brennan, Fort Worth Bike Sharing Board Chair: “Fort Worth’s central city has become a fun and exciting place to live and work, and bike sharing is going to be the next key ingredient. Residents, workers, and visitors will be able to easily hop on a bike to get where they’re going, which is always more fun and healthier than having to drive everywhere. We’re fortunate that in Fort Worth biking has become a viable transportation option, and bike sharing is going to make that choice even easier.”

Like this:

I had a chance to try out the bike share system in London, called “Barclays Cycle Hire”. It’s the third installment of my field research tour after experiencing bike sharing in San Antonio and Washington D.C. Now I have a taste for how the Euros do it. Bike sharing has a much longer history in Europe, although London’s system didn’t launch until 2010. The system is sponsored by and named after British banking giant Barclays, not unlike New York’s impending “Citibike” system. London’s system boasts 8,000 bikes located at 570 stations across the city center.

I picked up a thick city cycling guide from my hotel, which featured a large map of bike lanes and recommended routes. London has a number of cycling “superhighways”, which are wide bike lanes alongside car traffic. The lanes are painted bright blue (matching the bikes) and they occasionally split off from the roads onto their own, bike-only thoroughfares winding through parks, alleys or housing estates. These thoroughfares even had their own stoplights when they intersected with roads. The superhighways were marked clearly, which is nice because the narrow streets of downtown London can be a confusing place to bike. However, where there isn’t a superhighway, you’re left to fend for yourself.

The bikes seemed to be quite popular. I get the feeling they are ideally meant for locals who don’t have the space to store their own bike at home and who need something to get them from the Tube (subway) stop to and from their place of work. Similar to European cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen, it’s common to see people biking to work in dress clothes in London. I was never far from a station in Central London, but numerous stations were empty after all the bikes had been checked out. These are issues that bigger cities face. Rest assured that Fort Worth’s system will be accessible to tourists and commuters alike.

I rode the San Antonio B-Cycle system a few months ago. This past weekend I tried out Capital Bikeshare in Washington D.C. Here are my thoughts from my D.C. experience and how it compared with S.A.

First off, D.C. is experiencing a historic heat wave at the moment, which made sight-seeing almost unbearable at times. Nevertheless, I was determined to see the monuments. Traveling by bike made the trips between monuments quicker and slightly cooler. But there are only a few stations located in close proximity to the Mall and monuments, which was frustrating. Perhaps this was a conscious decision by the organizers of Capital Bikeshare because stations were much more plentiful in the non-touristy areas.

Comparison: San Antonio’s tourist attractions were more easily accessible by bikeshare. Stations were located very close to the Alamo, Riverwalk, and major downtown hotspots for dining and nightlife. It might be that San Antonio decided to design its system more for tourists whereas D.C. was hoping to cater to its many young professionals. That said, I was joined by hundreds of other people braving the heat to use the public bikes in D.C.

The Capital Bikeshare bikes themselves were a joy to ride. The docking stations were not as much fun to interact with. If I had to nitpick the bikes, I would point out the chintzy bell and the lack of an enclosed basket to hold souvenirs and water bottles. The stations kiosks required a cumbersome series of questions on a small screen that was hard to read in the sunlight. Printing out a new code to check out each new bike was annoying.

Comparison: The San Antonio B-Cycle bikes are slightly heavier and more difficult to maneuver, but they do have a nice size basket in front. The kiosks are easier to use because no codes are required, which makes for a simple, quick, paperless process.

I ended up spending $14 for one day of riding in D.C. In my opinion, it was money well spent and far cheaper than any other bike rental/tour offered in the Capital. It cost $7 for the 24-hour pass. The first 30 minutes of riding are free, the next 30 minutes cost $1.50 and each 30 minutes after that cost more and more. I accrued $7 in usage fees, which was attributed to not being able to find stations near the monuments. I used the handy mobile application to locate stations and I still had issues. Tourists less familiar with the bikeshare concept could end up spending lots more money and time looking for stations. Also, checking out a bike required a $101 hold on my credit card, which could scare other potential users.

Comparison: I spent $10 up front to rent the bike in San Antonio, but stations were easy to find and I never ended up paying for usage fees. All my trips were under 30 minutes in length. I don’t remember any hold on my credit card.

In the end, I highly recommend using both systems. They each have their strengths and weaknesses. It’s tougher for a city the size of D.C. to place a station at every corner. San Antonio’s compact downtown is far easier to traverse by bike. Both cities are lacking in the bike lane department. But they also benefit from wide sidewalks and slow downtown car traffic, making both road and sidewalks appealing options for bikes.

Have you tried bike sharing in either of these cities? What’d you think?

Click HERE to view more photos from my DC adventure, as well as a June Tour de Fort Worth bike ride.

Thanks to all 746 of you who filled out our first survey. It was distributed almost entirely via social media during May, National Bike Month. We were hoping to gauge public interest in bike sharing and how and where you might use such a program.

Here’s what you had to say:

76.1% would use a bike sharing program if Fort Worth had one, while 10% would not.

71% own their own bike (of which 31% ride often), and 29% are bike-less.

The largest block of respondents were ages 25-34 (38.4%), followed by 35-44 (24.4%), 45-54 (16%), 55-64 (9.6%), 18-24 (9.2%), and 65+ (2.6%).

Recreation, sight-seeing, and exercise were the most popular reasons to use bike sharing, followed by errands and commuting to work.

Downtown, West Seventh Street/Cultural District, and Trinity Park were the most popular destinations for bike sharing, followed by Near Southside, TCU, Medical District, and Stockyards

The most popular zip code to live in was 76107 (85 responses). 212 respondents worked in zip code 76102.

69.3% would use bike sharing as an alternative to driving their vehicle.

49.9% would use bike sharing in combination with public transportation.

70.8% have ridden the TRE, 37.4% the bus, and 19% have not used public transit in Fort Worth.

54.2% ride public transit 3-4 times per year, 11% ride 1-3 times per month, and 7.5% are daily riders.

38.8% have a positive perception of Tarrant County public transportation, while 35.8% do not.

Click HERE for a video of Mayor Price addressing the crowd at Fort Worth’s Bike to Work Day. Click HERE for a photos of Bike to Work Day, Open Streets and Tour de Fort Worth.